The WNBA is experiencing a breakout season as more fans tune in for games and help break attendance records, though one player has seemingly stood out above the rest: Indiana Fever Guard Caitlin Clark.
This season included a massive jump in viewership and attendance compared to recent WNBA seasons. The league stated that there was a 21% increase in viewership across its national television partners during the 2024 season compared to 2022.
The league also broke the record for the most attended game in WNBA history in a matchup between the Fever and the Washington Mystics on Thursday night, as 20,711 fans participated in the game and broke the WNBA attendance record, per NBC Los Angeles.
While these numbers would be shocking for the majority of WNBA teams, it is a crowd size that the Fever have likely gotten accustomed to after a season full of packed stadiums.
Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press detailed the average increase in attendance in games played by Clark and the Fever, writing on Twitter that there was an 88% increase in the number of attendees at Indiana games.
Reynolds described the phenomenon as “Caitlinmania,” further explaining that Fever games had an average attendance of 16,084 while every other WNBA game in the 2024 season had an average attendance of 8,552.
Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell discussed the increased attendance throughout the WNBA. He said everyone should credit Clark for the increase, noting that she has done an “unbelievable job of bringing, obviously, her own fans and people that support her.”
“You know, for me, I kinda laugh at it and embrace it at the same time because I’ve always kind of flew under the radar. I’ve always kind of been that person, that player — very conservative. I’m very introvert. So, now I get to see the flip side of it, and it’s kind of funny. I can laugh about it because I know it’s come from a genuine place,” she added, per The New York Post. “But I embrace it from the standpoint of, like, people, you know, [are] not guaranteed to see me play and now that they do, I just hope I do right by it. I just hope I don’t eff it up.”
